Miles Apart
by QuirkQuartz
Summary: Kirishima finds himself on an exchange in North America - But finds himself missing home, and one person in particular, who he's already spent most of his Yuuei years apart from. Fic Trade with Dominomags, KiriTatami


There were times where Kirishima really did love his Quirk.

Getting thrown against a building was usually one of the moments he was happiest that he had a straightforward Quirk like Hardening.

It meant he didn't suffer much of the same issues his comrades might face when dealing with that situation. He didn't feel any dizziness, or shakiness, or disorientation. He barley even felt it, provided he did have his Quirk active. Which he did. And that gave him time to react.

The moment the impact shot through his body, and he was able to send commands to his limbs the rest of his body, he opened up his left eye, and saw his attacker incoming with a raised fist, already swinging his way. The attack was aimed right for his face – A finishing blow was the intent of the attacker. He didn't seem to have fully grasped the concept of Kirishima's Hardening, apparently assuming his augmentation Quirk would be enough to just shatter right through whatever defensive barriers his opponent was putting up.

Instinct took over Kirishima's movements. He didn't feel any fear in the slightest, or any apprehension. He was in the zone, for lack of a better term. He knew exactly what was coming, and what he had to do.

Once the Villain swung, Kirishima moved his head to the side, avoiding the strike. Behind him, the wall seemed to shatter and crack up, taking the brunt of the impact. Dust and sharks of brick and concrete shot out from the impact zone. Whatever his Quirk was, the Villain didn't seem to suffer any kinds of recoil from his attacks, even when hitting something solid. And it also seemed that it was very much an all-or-nothing Quirk – Immense power in attacking, but in doing so, it significantly lowered the durability and defence of the user. Previous engagements had confirmed this. So Kirishima had to act fast.

His left fist turned hard as rock as he activated his Quirk, and then, mustering in as much force with his waist into his swing, he struck his opponent right in the rib-cage, where he was far less defended. The reaction was practically immediate, the Villain more or less bending around his fist as the impact hit him.

Pushing himself off the wall, Kirishima launched another strike with his right arm, Hardened just the same, and this time, the young Hero slammed his fist straight into the Villains jaw. Perhaps they hadn't been expecting such an immediate counter-attack, or maybe they simply weren't as physically tough as Kirishima had believed that they were. But the end result was the same. The same Quirk which granted his enemy their devastating power also was their greatest opening.

They were down and out right after that.

"Red Riot!" Kirishima's eyes were more focused on the opponent he had just knocked out. The young adult barely even glanced to his sides as he tried to regain his breath. "You alright? We saw you get thrown and thought this guy'd got the drop on you!"

The hardened skin around Kirishima's hands softened, and he ran a hand through his black hair. All things considered, it was a fairly easy take-down, but that didn't mean he hadn't felt himself work up a sweat.

"I'm fine." He assured his allies. His breath turned to vapour, which hung in the air for a couple of seconds before dissipating. "He caught me off guard was all." He raised his head, and scanned over the site of the brief, but intense struggle. "How're Ironsides and Crow Head? I'm pretty sure this guy knocked bad up."

"Up bad." One of his allies corrected his slightly broken English, though there wasn't any irritation, nor malice meant by it. Just a genuine effort to help someone struggling with the language. "They'll both be fine. Ironsides has a concussion but Heal-Cloud'll have him back on his feet in a few hours."

"So, I guess the only thing left is to tie this guy up and wait for the cops to show up."

"Right." Said another one of the Heroes nearby. He reached his arm out and then shot out a biological web-like substance of some kind, sticking the rampaging Villain to the tarmac of the road below. They weren't going anywhere once they woke up, super-augmentation Quirk or not.

"You're sure that'll hold him?" Kirishima asked, tilting his head slightly, unsure just how much he trusted such a soft-looking substance.

The second Hero nodded. "Once it sets it'll be tougher than steel, and remain rigid. Super Strength or not, he needs to build up some kind of momentum to use his powers to full effect, and he ain't going that with those stuck to his arms."

Thankfully, it didn't turn out to be much of an issue. The Canadian police had arrived on the scene before the Villain had regained consciousness, and set the lawbreaker into a Quirk-restraining device like they did back in Japan, and shoved him into a transit truck. The media was on the scene just as quickly as the law enforcement, shouting out questions and trying to get the best shots and the best pictures for their articles. Unlike the Japanese media though, the reporters here seemed to keep a more respectable distance, and weren't was big on hounding the Heroes incessantly.

Just one of the differences that Kirishima had found himself having to get used to.

Steelslinger seemed to relish the attention, and was at the forefront of the group, answering questions to a curious populace, while the others ensured that there were no issues with the transfer of the Villain. Attention lover though he was, Steelslinger didn't take credit where it wasn't due, and quoted Kirishima as the one who had actually managed to take down the troublemaker.

They tried to fire a few questions his way. Today though, he didn't feel up to dealing with the press, so he just gave them a small, awkward, obligatory wave, and turned his back, focusing more on whatever duties he could find in excuse not to talk to them.

Things moved quickly, and it didn't really take too long before the Villain had been loaded up and taken away to a secure facility. Reporters and the likes started to disperse as the Heroes there made their way away from the scene.

"I just got word." Skitarri said, looking up from their phone. "Ironsides is totally fine. Aside from just being dizzy he's good."

"That's good to hear." Kirishima nodded. "From where I was standing, it looked like he took a nasty hit."

"Thank God for Heal-Cloud." Steelslinger said. "I don't suppose he's still up for tonight?"

"Says he is."

"Nice. Hey, Red Riot, we're meeting with a few guys over in Lakewood, wanna come along?"

"Thanks, but I've got plans." Kirishima said, genuinely grateful for the invitation, and almost a bit sad he had to turn it down. When he thought about why he was turning it down though, it made him feel better almost immediately. "Someone back home."

"Ah, I gotcha. Next time then?"

"Sure thing."

* * *

If there was one thing that Kirishima was sure he was going to take away from being in Canada, it was the sheer cold of the place. Winters back in Musutafu didn't even remotely come close. Modifications to his Hero costume had been outright necessary, lest he catch hypothermia.

He made his way through the streets, hands shovelled into his pockets to keep them warm. His breathing turned to vapour as it seeped out of the bundle he had wrapped around the lower half of his face. He could swear that some of the hair on his fringe had frozen together thanks to the sweat he'd worked up from the previous battle, but he dared not risk losing any precious heat to check. Evidently, being here during the winter was asking to feel true cold.

Things were different here, and the ways Heroes operated, and how they interacted with one another was different too. They were simultaneously more independent, yet friendlier with one another than back home. Hero Teams were more common here, and had been common here for decades, while Japan was only just now having a resurgence of them. The independent Heroes that did exist tended to be those of either intense power, or intense support, allowing them to be interchanged with Hero Teams as was necessary.

Outside of work, people tended to be a lot more relaxed, and easygoing, when compared to his homelands constant hustle and bustle of people who always had something to do. Here, time to rest was a given, and recreational activities were not only expected, but encouraged, contrasting the more work-oriented lifestyle Kirishima had seen for most of his life. It took some adjusting, but he did end up finding things to do with his spare time.

While he was only going to be here for another couple of months, he did find himself feeling like he was right at home, in a way. People recognised him as a Yuuei graduate, even with him having reverted back to his natural black shade of hair. And while his English wasn't the greatest, he was competent enough to talk to those who came up to him, asking for autographs and pictures - Something which always made him grin from ear to ear - And to communicate with Heroes as he needed to. Occasionally he got something wrong, but his usual group pointed it out when he did, like he had asked them to.

There wasn't any denying he liked things here - But that didn't mean that he didn't miss home.

One person especially.

His phone made a buzzing noise and vibrated against his hand. A message. For a moment, he debated just leaving it in his pocket until he got somewhere warm. Curiosity got the best of him though, and he pulled out his small phone, and looked over the message.

_'Morning, Ei. Well, Afternoon for you. Hope you've had a good day and not had too much trouble over there! X'_ There was also a turtle emoji at the end of it. For no reason.

Seemed about right for Tatami.

Kirishima sighed. With a fourteen hour time difference between here and home, the pair of them hardly got much chance to talk at all. It had been a downside to coming over to the North American continent he hadn't considered until the last moment.

Distance sucked. It really, really did.

Seeing how things worked in another country was a good way to learn new techniques and strategies, and that was stuff that he could take back to Japan to, with any luck, improve his own skill set and share with his agency. That was the entire reason he was out here in the first place.

It had required a personal sacrifice on his part though. Being in separate schools on opposing sides of Musutafu had been bad enough, and had made it impossible as it was for he and Tatami to meet up. Kirishima and Tatami had formally met during a mixer between their schools, and had caught up again during some of the training exercise that Shiketsu and Yuuei had organised between themselves. They had built up a rapport, and Kirishima had come to find her awkward personality endearing. At some point, they just _were_ in a relationship. Neither of them really asked the other about it, it just sort of happened.

Graduating did make meeting up a bit easier, but Tatami was a year above Kirishima, and she was already acting as a sidekick to a Pro by the time he graduated. And then he had to do the same, so it wasn't a case of all problems being solved forever.

Once they settled into routines though, things became easier. And then Kirishima was offered the opportunity to work with a team in Canada. Specifically him - He had been chosen and asked to do this by his agency. He couldn't really turn down an opportunity like that. but it did mean that he and Tatami had to be separated for a while longer.

Sometimes he really did envy his friends who had their other half's right there with them. Not that he regretted ever getting into this with Tatami, but he envied their ability to be close to one another all the time. He wished that he and her were able to have that. And it seemed like the country he was in was doing everything that it could to remind him of her.

Every gift store had something hanging in the window that he knew Tatami would like. For some reason, he seemed to run into a copious amount of pet stores that had baby turtles on display - Tatami's favourite animal. Even the weather reminded him - In spite of her fondness for reptiles and amphibious, she enjoyed a blanket of snowfall as much as anyone else in the world - Except the people in this place, which had more snow than they knew what to do with.

He smiled at the message all the same, and typed in a response with his finger-less gloves. '_Thanks Tam. I just wrapped up for today. I'll be back at my residency in about an hour if you're still up for today.'_

A response came barely half a minute later. _'Of course I am!'_

* * *

Glancing at the time on the bottom right of his monitor, Kirishima did some mental maths about how long he'd been sat in front of his screen. Nearly three hours. Normally he wasn't one to spend so much time on technology, not when he could be training his body, or if he had worksheets to fill out. He was no stranger to tech, but it didn't dominate his life like some others allowed it to.

He made exceptions in this case though. And he'd been in front of his monitor pretty much the minute he got back into his room for that very exception.

_"So, I kind of... Maybe had to deal with that. Myself... While soaked. And cold."_

"Try being here for a few days, then talk to me about cold."

Kirishima smiled as he watched Tatami let out a small laugh. _"I swear, you've done nothing but complain about the cold since you've been over there."_

The Hardening Quirk user took another sip from his coffee, and then let out a small exhale. He glanced outside - Of course it was snowing, because of course it was. He looked back at the computer screen, and the webcam. "You'd get what I was talking about if you were here, trust me."

_"And you'd get what I was talking about if you were here too."_

Really, it wasn't much. In fact it was honestly barely anything at all - Maybe they got a few hours a day, but he and Tatami managed to arrange little chats through the internet. A webcam and an old laptop, and the pair of them got to see one another once every couple of days for a short while.

They were the highlights of their days though. Without any doubt.

Kirishima yawned, and laid on his bed. "So, what'd you do?"

_"I... Kind of had Miruko... Throw me at them."_

"You had the Pro Hero you're serving under throw you at a Villain while you were soaking wet from falling into a port?"

_"The good news is it worked."_

"It did?"

_"Yeah! I guess they didn't expect someone to just kind of drop in on them from the sky... For some reason. So I just dropped on them and then- "_ Tatami made a few sound effects as she swung her fists around like she was attacking an invisible opponent. _" - and then they just went down."_

"Hah!" Kirishima smirked. "Nice one, Tam!"

_"Thanks"_ His girlfriend seemed to awkwardly blush and twiddle her fingers together before she carried on. _"We managed to get all of the stuff they'd stolen back without any of it getting too badly damaged. I think a vase got broken, but the agency is paying for that."_

"How've things been back home, aside from work, I mean?"

_"Okay, I guess. There's not a whole lot going on lately."_ Tatami shrugged, her face becoming a bit more sullen at the mention. She took a sip of her own drink. _"Maybe a little lonely."_

He understood what she meant, and he sighed along with her. As he had thought himself just a few hours ago, things were lonely while he was here. He couldn't blame Tatami for feeling the same.

"I know." He said, with a small sigh. "It's... Only for a couple of months now."

_"That's still a long time, you know."_ Tatami seemed to slump into her seat, lightly poking at something stuck to her desk.

"I know... But we'll manage."

He was saying it as much for himself as he was saying it for her. In the long term, the pair of them would be fine. In the short term, the pair of them were just going to have to deal with this, and get through it. they would do their jobs, and do everything they could to talk to one another, and they'd see each other once Kirishima was back in Japan. For now though, they just had to deal with things.

For a few moments, there was silence. Tatami nodded, showing she understood that just like Kirishima did, even without him having to say it. They both knew it was true. But it didn't mean it was instantly the most comforting thing in the world.

Somehow, it wasn't even necessarily the distance either. The distance sucked, yes, but they had struggled to meet up during their school years. Maybe once a week if they were lucky, but longer periods between seeing one another weren't uncommon by any stretch of the imagination.

What was really the pain... Was the time difference.

No matter when they had finished their classes, spent hours training, gotten food, taken a shower, or whatever, they were in the same timezone. That meant that they always could arrange their schedules around evenly, and still get time to talk to one another. Being together was great, but they had made their relationship work for so long, and had managed to do so without having to be together in person.

For both of them, it was just about having fun.

So long as they could talk, chat, and just chill out, it didn't really matter if they were in the same room or not. they could spend hours talking about anything, playing games through their computers, and just having fun. That was all it was. And when they did get together, that fun didn't stop. It was just further enhanced by the absence, and the fondness the pair of them had for one another.

A sixteen hour time difference put a massive hole in that routine.

Now, they were lucky to get the time to talk to one another. Both of them were so busy, working their hardest to be the best Heroes that they could be, learning all they could, and putting their all into everything, for long, hard hours... Back in Japan, Kirishima and Tatami had still been able to find the time to talk, to just laugh for maybe an hour before they had to go to sleep. Being on the other side of the planet didn't allow them that luxury.

How long had they been dating for now? Kirishima remembered the moment they made it officially official was about halfway through his second year, so it had to be coming up close to four years now. Four years they had made this work, even with all the difficulties that came with being in their different schools, the utter madness that had come from their formative years, and the dangerous and hectic world of being Professional Heroes. All of that hadn't stopped them then. Distance wouldn't stop them now.

But there had to be steps they could take to close that distance.

_"Hm?"_ Tatami made a small noise with her throat, and tilted her head. _"You alright, Ei?"_

Perhaps it was because deep down, the pair of them were both individually too awkward to mention it, but the saying proved true - Absence made the heart grow fonder. And right now, Kirishima's own awkwardness vanished, if for no other reason than the distance reminding him of how much he did care about his girlfriend, and how he wanted to be alongside her whenever he could.

"Hey, Tam, sorry, I was just... I was just thinking." Kirishima said, scratching the side of his cheek, and letting himself blush gently. "When I get back... What d'you think about getting a place together?"

His sudden question caused a visible response from his girlfriend on the other side of the monitor. She immediately sat upright and pulled her head away from the computer screen, like she suspected that something had gone wrong with it.

It was a completely impulsive question on Kirishima's part. If he'd actually thought about it for more than fifteen seconds, he would have chosen a more opportune time to ask than right now, through a webcam, just off the wall like he had done. And he seemed to realise that not doing that had been a mistake.

"I - I just - " His hands came up in front of him like he expected to have to protect himself from the monitor, "I was just - We've been going out for a while, right? I just thought, we've had to put up with distance for most of our relationship, and I just thought that maybe it's time we thought about it maybe if you're... Up for... That." How often was it that he tripped over his own words? Evidently that nervousness was still there, even if he'd just ignored it

_"...You serious, Ei?"_

Tatami's expression seemed to have relaxed into one of both shock, and apprehensive optimism, like she expected Kirishima to reveal that it just been some kind of joke and she didn't want to get her hopes up too much in case.

"...Of course I am." Kirishima gave her a smile. For a brief quarter second, he had doubted it himself, but the more he thought about it, the more certain he felt himself become. Right now he was thousands of miles away, and when he got home, he didn't want to put a meter between the pair of them if he could help it. "If you're...Up for that."

He hadn't finished talking before Tatami had pretty much risen to her feet and let out a loud squeal - cheer combination like she had been waiting to hear this suggestion her entire life. In about five seconds, she was going to sit down again and awkwardly say that she was completely up for the idea, but Kirishima had already gotten his answer. He laughed, and Tatami saw him, and she started to laugh herself.

Suddenly, seven-thousand-six-hundred miles didn't seem too far at all.

* * *

**Annnnnnd this Kiritatami trade fic is doooone for DominoMags! Doing Tatami already in a relationship is kind of tricky - Since I see her more as a perpetually awkward mess, so giving her enough time to get used to things was a task in of itself, but I'm actually pretty happy with how this came out, and hope that it came out well for Mags. **

**We both had a theme of distance, and I ended up deciding to base a bit of Kirishima's experiences on my own in Canada since Canada is lovely - If goddamn cold - and the image of Kirishima rocking up to Edmonton in his normal costume in the winter and needing to track down literally anyone who knows how to make costume modifications so he doesn't get frostbite amuses me greatly - Bright side is he'll never complain about the cold in Japan again. (I know I've not been able to.)**

**I've had a fair bit of fun with these trades, but I think i'm going to put them on hold for just a little bit - I definitely want to do more, but i also want to get back to updating my regular fics because I've fallen behind and really need to make up for lost time before Uni swallows me whole - I just hope that this was a fun read for those of you who are regular followers. **

**If you want more Kiritatami, check out DominoMag's profile - she's got a whole story featuring the pair on there. And she wrote me PoniLissa which was a fun read - In the meanwhile, I hope you've enjoyed, and I'll catch you all in whatever it is I decide to make next - See ya! **


End file.
